SAP (NYSE:SAP) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Still a Buy?

Shares of SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) saw unusually-high trading volume on Friday . Approximately 1,327,102 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 53% from the previous session’s volume of 864,580 shares.The stock last traded at $274.02 and had previously closed at $279.34.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SAP. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. TD Cowen raised shares of SAP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $240.00 to $305.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of SAP from $283.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 price target on shares of SAP in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of SAP from $265.00 to $307.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, SAP presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $248.83.

SAP Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $338.41 billion, a PE ratio of 95.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.71 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $271.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

SAP (NYSE:SAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The software maker reported $1.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.51 by ($0.02). SAP had a net margin of 9.17% and a return on equity of 12.18%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that SAP SE will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of SAP

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of SAP by 22.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,246,279 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,347,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,866,468 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in SAP during the 4th quarter valued at about $290,023,000. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in SAP by 125.0% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,602,548 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $394,563,000 after buying an additional 890,157 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of SAP by 145.5% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,346,506 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $331,523,000 after buying an additional 798,037 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in SAP by 91.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,471,798 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $362,371,000 after acquiring an additional 701,880 shares in the last quarter.

About SAP

SAP SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides applications, technology, and services worldwide. It offers SAP S/4HANA that provides software capabilities for finance, risk and project management, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and asset management, and research and development; SAP SuccessFactors solutions for human resources, including HR and payroll, talent and employee experience management, and people and workforce analytics; and spend management solutions that covers direct and indirect spend, travel and expense, and external workforce management.